Howard Nelson in Minder

While watching an episode of Minder on ITV4 recently I was surprised to spot the late, great Howard “Vanderhorn” Nelson pop up as a boxer. The episode “No Way to treat a Daley” was from 1993, so this was a good few years after his last film credit, 1978’s Carry On Emmannuelle, and his 1982 appearance as a spanking milkman in Harrison Marks’ New Janus magazine. However I’m unsure whether this appearance represented a belated return to acting, or whether Howard did more TV extra work in the 1980s and 1990s that has gone under the radar. His character is allocated a name, Bill “Flying Dutchman” Van Dyke, but no dialogue and in terms of screen time its a strictly ‘blink and you’ll miss him’ appearance, or in the context of his role “blink and he’s been knocked out”.